


Sparda Goes Pyjama Shopping

by Tharapita



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, Family, Family Dynamics, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Fluff but Serious, Humor, Husband & Wife - Freeform, Living with a Devil is still hard, Romantic Fluff, Slice of Life, Slice of the Sparda Household Life, Unexpected Pain, Unexpected serious, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:14:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26406328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tharapita/pseuds/Tharapita
Summary: Just a normal day in the Sparda household. The twins are totally insane; Sparda is somehow incredibly human and also not; Eva is the only one with any braincells AND manages to control the craziness of her household (who's the real superhuman?).
Relationships: Dante & Sparda & Vergil (Devil May Cry), Dante & Sparda (Devil May Cry), Eva & Sparda (Devil May Cry), Eva/Sparda (Devil May Cry), Sparda & Vergil (Devil May Cry)
Comments: 28
Kudos: 46





	1. Demon Children are Incapable of Sleeping Through the Night, Apparently

Sparda was snoring. While normally this would've earned him an elbow in the ribs from Eva half an hour ago, he had also shifted into his true form while he slept and Eva knew from experience trying to elbow that would result in nothing but a sore elbow at best. The poor human could tell he had shifted because when he grew he always stole the entire duvet. She would've thought that becoming all covered in armour would keep you warm, stopping you from wanting a duvet, but at this point she didn't particularly care. Lying awake at 1 in the morning, shivering and deafened was not the most pleasant experience. Even worse, she could hear all sorts of suspicious noises coming from the boy's end of the house.

She rolled over and started shaking Sparda on his shoulder, the least spiked part of his armour,  
"Sparda. Sparda wake up." Eva was rewarded with a low grumble and a moan from her husband. You would've thought that someone who didn't actually need to sleep would be easier to wake up, but again she wasn't going to question it. "Sparda. Sparda you need to wake up." She said again, and this time she saw the demon lord shift slightly, before rolling onto his back. Thankfully, Eva managed to shift out of the way of his horns when he did this, or she would've been clobbered. Again. 

"What is it?" He rumbled, his voice echoing and reverberating off nothing.  
"I can hear noises from the boys' rooms."  
"They're fighting, their presences are risen against one another." The ancient demon rumbled in reply, and Eva could tell he was preparing to go back to sleep.  
"So go and stop them!" She hissed back, slightly angrily. Did he really see nothing wrong with two 5-year-old boys brawling at 1am?  
"Boys will be boys and demons will be demons." Sparda resounded in reply, clearly still half asleep. "Let them sort it out." Eva sighed at that, looks like she was going to have to bring out the big point. 

"They might get blood on the carpet again." Sparda froze at that. They both remembered the  
palaver of last time the boys got blood on the cream carpet of the hallway outside their rooms, and having to get workmen to replace it while sheltering them from the numerous Devil Arms and other, arcane items that filled the house. Eva could hear the Legendary Dark Knight begin to grumble as he started to untangle himself from the sheets. He slowly got out from the bed and shifted back to his human guise in a flash of warm light that briefly illuminated the room, and while Eva couldn't see him, she could hear him grabbing that horrible purple dressing gown before walking towards the door. Just before he left, she called out to him,  
"I can have the duvet back now."

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The boy's rooms in the mansion were set aside in their own area, with one flight of stairs that lead up to their two rooms as well as a third, mostly empty room filled with toys and enough play swords to make Eva worry, which they had designated a 'playroom'. The moment Sparda reached the top of the stairs he was greeted by two small shapes, one red and one blue, on top of each other in the middle of the corridor. The demon lord rose his presence in reply to the boys' still grappling ones, like a tsunami collapsing over two islands, he felt them instantly shrink their presences back to themselves, and saw the two small heads stop trying to bite the other and look up at their father with large, frightened eyes. 

"Boys." He said, slowly advancing on them. "You woke your mother up." At that, terror instantly entered their eyes and they quickly detached from each other and rose to their feet. The demon felt amusement bubbling in him at that, his sons fearing Eva more than the Legendary Dark Knight Sparda.  
"I am sorry for fighting this late, Father." Vergil said, his usually pristine hair falling around his face as he gazed at the ground. Beside him, Dante was looking up at his father, white hair also in his wide eyes. "Mum's not going to be angry is she Dad?" He asked, his voice trembling only slightly. Sparda wanted to sigh at that, no matter how hard he tried he really couldn't bring himself to scold his children. "I don't know Dante. Probably looking at the state of your pyjamas." He replied to the worried child. 

Their pyjamas were a state, for while their bodies had healed the injuries the two had done on one another their clothes still bore the scars and were filled with lacerations and holes. "This is the third set of pyjamas you two have ruined this month." At that Dante joined his brother in looking at the floor, and both were sporting blushes of embarrassment. After their midnight tree-climbing competition two weeks ago the pair had promised to actually sleep at night, but the demon supposed it was as much their natural element as the daytime was. "Come on, get to sleep and we can deal with this in the morning." Both sons of Sparda turned then and returned to their bedrooms, and the demon was pleased to see Vergil stifle a yawn before he got to his bedroom door. 

Once Dante had disappeared, the older twin turned to look at his father, whispering almost too quietly for even his ears to hear,  
"I am sorry father." "I'm not the one who was woken up. You can apologise in the morning." Replied the father just as quietly. Vergil nodded solemnly at that, and disappeared into his own bedroom. Sparda himself turned then and left the boys to their rest. With any luck they would go to sleep now, rather than sneak out to continue their fighting. Sparda wouldn't put it past those two, as much as they loved each other they also loved nothing more than testing their strength against each other. 

He knew he's should really return to Eva, who was probably waiting for him in a cocoon of the entire duvet, that cheeky smile on her face. Still, since he was awake there was something the demon wanted to do. Quickly, he made his way through the mansion he himself had built many years ago, his footsteps leading him to the entrance hall. There he stood in almost pitch black, and looked up at the painting that hung over the fireplace in the grand room. It had only been finished a few weeks before, and Sparda had yet to look at it and see it, instead relying on Eva's description. It looked good, the demon concluded, his family looked like a real family, immortalised in the human convention of aristocratic portraits forever. Without even realising it, Sparda released into his presence such a sense of warmth and contentment that even Eva felt herself relaxing, two floors above him. After a few moments of just appreciating how wonderful his family was, Sparda turned again and walked back to his bed. Eva was indeed waiting within a duvet cocoon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this! I actually wrote this a while ago but my helpful iPad decided to delete 2/3rds of it when I was 2 paragraphs off finishing, and I rage quitted. Figured if I post it, you readers would give me the motivation to re-write all of it (*muffled groaning*). 
> 
> PLEASE tell me what ya think, the more you do the more motivation I'll have to finish the damned thing.


	2. Almost a normal morning

Sparda was woken again that morning at the usual time, 7 o'clock. Eva was shaking him, he had slept through the alarm clock again. Opening his eyes to find the curtains thankfully still closed, Eva said,  
"Oh, you FINALLY wake up. Honestly Sparda for someone who claims they don't need to sleep, how come it's always me that actually wakes up to the alarm clock?" Sparda smiled at that, turning to look his lovely wife completely in the eyes.  
"Because you're designed for it, of course. How am I supposed to be good at sleeping when I only do it to keep you company?" Eva was giving him the same smile back, lighting up her whole face like the first sun beam of a summer's day.   
"So being bad at sleeping in your eyes is sleeping through pretty much everything and also snoring like a train?" She countered, her eyes twinkling in mischief, striking Sparda for a moment as the spitting image of Dante. Not even thinking about it, he grasped the bottom of her chin with a hand that he didn't even notice noticing was human and kissed her firmly on the lips. He held her there, just for long enough, before pulling away, seeing that beautiful joy in her eyes that lit up his whole world.

"Good morning dear." He said, feeling a smile breaking across his face to match hers. Eva just kept smiling that wonderful smile, before grabbing the back of Sparda's head herself and returning his kiss with all the love she could. Sparda just closed his eyes and enjoyed it, feeling the love within him as hot as rage but as soft and sweet as cherry cake.  
"Good morning love." Eva replied when they finally separated. The demon would have liked to have just lain there, slightly propped up, gazing into those captivating eyes, but Eva was flapping her hands at him and, even worse, blinking. "Go on, get ready, or I'll open the curtains and pick out for you the worse possible outfit possible." Sparda mocked shock as he got up out of the bed and wandered over towards his wardrobe.  
"Why would you ever do such a thing?!?" He cried, placing a hand on his forehead, while also pulling clothes out of draws at the bottom of his wardrobe. "Praying upon a disability!" Eva snorted then,  
"I agree, your sense of fashion is a disability." She laughed. Sparda gasped again, plastering a hurt expression upon his face.  
"My clothes are the highest of fashion and the best of quality. This coat -" at that he was pulling on a deep purple frock coat with a flourish over his frilled shirt, black trousers and black and silver embroidered waistcoat - "was made by the finest tailor in Paris."  
"Yeah," Eva grinned, pulling herself out of bed still grinning, "but you still had it made in purple, and you wear it with a monocle." 

She had walked over to curtains then, glancing back at her husband.   
"You ready to be blind love?" Sparda sighed, it really was a curse to have eyes designed for the dark in the human world.  
"Just let me look at you again." He said, just drinking in her face again until that evening. "Alright, although I curse that I can't look at you all day." Eva smiled at him again, before walking over to the curtains. Sparda looked away, watching as his vision descended from perfect sight into blurry blotches of colour with great swathes of white. Not even on instinct he switched to relying on his nose, smelling as Eva approached him from behind. He felt her arms wrap around his back and felt her head rest on the little indent between his shoulder blades.  
"It means I get to look at you all day." She replied, and Sparda could just hear the joy in her voice. He chuckled, rumbling deep in his chest and heard his mate's delighted laugh in return. "That sounds so strange." She laughed, before detaching herself from him and going over to her own wardrobe. Sparda couldn't tell what she chose to put on, although he complemented her on it anyway, gaining another of those wonderful laughs. As she left for the kitchen and he to go and wake up their twins, he reflected that her laugh was the most beautiful music on this earth.

"Oh and Sparda, I want you to come with me to get the boys some new pyjamas today."  
"What?!?" The demon stopped dead at that, turning to face Eva.   
"I'm not leaving you at home while I have to traipse through a department store. When I run the boys into school this morning we can go on together."  
"But...how do you expect me to choose pyjamas in a department store? Have you seen department stores? They're ALL WHITE!"  
"Sounds all white by me then." Eva said, the smell of delight rolling off of her in waves.  
"The quality of that pun should be enough alone to excuse me from going." Sparda groaned as he smelt Eva turn away from him again towards the kitchen. 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dante would not top laughing as Sparda strapped him into his car seat.  
“It’s not that funny brother.” Vergil sighed, regret from telling his twin a joking rolling off of him in waves. In reply, Dante just laughed harder,  
“Son, I would prefer if we finish this journey with my eardrums intact.” Sparda winced as he removed himself from bending over the younger twin. Sometimes it was a curse having heightened hearing, especially when you had one loud son and one exceptionally loud son. The white haired child kept laughing in spite of his father’s pain, well at least until he received a hard stare from his mother and promptly became very quiet indeed. Sparda felt amusement rifle through him, while he couldn’t make out Eva’s features he did very much recognise the hunch of her shoulders, and the tingle of irritation that peppered her scent, and could hazard a definite idea as to why his youngest had so abruptly become quiet.  
“Why is father coming on the school run?” Vergil asked as Sparda swung himself into the passenger seat.  
“Because some children last night thought it was a good idea to lacerate their last good set of pyjamas. And so their parents have to go out shopping to get new ones.” Eva replied with another sharp look at the backseat as she pulled down the mansion drive. Both children blushed at that and looked abashed.   
“I am sorry mum.” Vergil muttered.  
“Thank you Vergil, although it would mean more if the next set last over a month. It would also be NICE to have an apology from Dante.” 

Silence began to grow through the car at that, as the stubborn five-year-old stared resolutely out of his window. See, that was the benefit of seeing with your nose, Sparda reflected, you could see without moving your head at all. Dante was also steadily rising his presence as the awkward silence abounded, although Sparda quickly put a stop to that swamping it with his own quick burst of presence. The child started fidgeting at that, Sparda could smell his discomfort although he was still staring resolutely out of the window. The silence started to become increasingly awkward until, at last, Dante choked out,   
"I'm sorry." It was so very quiet that Sparda nearly missed it, even with his heighten hearing, although Eva seemed to accept it.  
"Thank you Dante, although as I said before I will only forgive you if these ones last to the end of this month." She said, giving both another stern glare, or at least she turned to look at them. At this point Sparda had become well versed in reading between the lines. Neither of the twins returned her look, however, Dante still finding something absolutely fascinating out of his car window and Vergil was picking at his school tie.

The demon lord felt himself starting to become uncomfortable, with both his children visibly upset. He was determined that neither were going to have the pain of his upbringing, if you could call being abandoned in the wastelands of Hell as soon as he could walk an upbringing, meaning that all of their scolding came from their human mother, Sparda being terrified of crossing the line. It was, of course, absolutely nothing at all whatsoever to do with the fact that he didn't like them looking so downtrodden and felt overwhelming pity the moment he saw them. Turning to look at the back seat he gave them both a big grin and said,  
"So, what kind of pyjamas would you boys like?" Their two scents picked up immediately, excitement bowling over their previous embarrassment and shame. Eva's face, however, snapped around quickly to look at the demon and disapproval at his actions began instantly leaking from her. Vergil looked up into the rear view mirror, a large grin splitting his face in two,  
"Could I have one with spaceships on?" He beamed, his bubbly happy smell filling Sparda with another wave of affection to him. "Or planets!" The demon opened his mouth to tell him that of course they would, but Eva cut him off with yet another sharp look. He realised that perhaps she might've been a little angry with him for undoing her scolding, and began looking forward to a scolding of his own.

"We'll see what we can do." She said noncommittally. "But I'll also make sure to buy two pink pairs which you will wear for the rest of the year if you destroy the new ones." While that did little to curb Vergil's enthusiasm Dante, clearly the more bruised of the pair, flushed red again, and returned to the car window, although Sparda could smell his enthusiasm returning very quickly. Rally it was amazing how soon his two children bounced back.   
"I'd like a red pair." He said quietly, carefully watching his mother out of the corner of his eyes. "Or ones with creepy crawlies, if there are any." Vergil snorted at that, and the demon could smell mischievousness rising through him at a quick rate.   
"Father shouldn't have any trouble finding bugs." He laughed, not a loud obnoxious laugh like his brother but short and sharp. Sparda felt his face collapse at that, disappointment and, though he tried his very best to deny it to himself, embarrassment running rampant through him. Dante's laugh had joined the cacophony of the backseat, although they both quickly cut short when they looked at their father.  
"I'm not an insect." He moped, looking deliberately out his window even though he could see nothing but a white-grey mash through it, and picked at the base of the window in a mirror-image of his sons moments before. "I have no idea why everyone insists on calling me that." Despite' Sparda's protests, however, he had a feeling that particular nickname was not going away. Especially since his wife had now joined in the snickering of the two hybrids. 

However, before anyone could reply to the miserable demon, Eva had pulled into the school drive. Admitting defeat, for now, Sparda turned to give both boys one final smile. He could’ve leave with any of them being miserable.   
“Have a great day at school boys!” He beamed as they both started to unplug themselves from their car seats.   
“You too dad!” Grinned Dante, before dashing around to the back of the car with Eva to grab his school bag. The sight of the two children happily running into the school in the morning sunlight, both grinning so far their faces should’ve split, was something that Sparda would’ve loved to have seen, although he was content to smell them until the pair had disappeared.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eva had successfully guided Sparda through the multi-storey car park and into the department store. She was really never going to forget the time that Sparda hadn't noticed one of the two white pillars at the entrance of the shop and knocked himself out walking into them, only to wake 'miraculously' unharmed in hospital. That was one embarrassing evening Eva was determined to prevent happening again, and she and him had spent a long time perfecting their system where she could point out the things he couldn't smell without making it entirely obvious the demon lord was entirely blind in the pristine white shops. 

Thankfully, they had managed to navigate up numerous escalators to the children's clothes department, with only a small detour to the food hall which the demon, relying on his nose, had found impossible to resist, apparently. Despite that, however, she had managed to collect with him a nice selection of boy's pyjamas, which now nicely decorated Sparda's outstretched arms.   
"What do you think of this one? It's got dinosaurs on." She asked, holding out for him a pair of deep blue pyjamas decorated with dinosaurs that she was more than certain Vergil would enjoy. Then again Dante would probably like the matching pair in green.  
"Fantastic," replied Sparda with a small smirk, "looks just like another darkish, smallish blob to me. Matches the other ones." Eva rolled her eyes, although she really couldn't feel angry at the big idiot, only smiling right back at him.   
"That's why I described it you." She said with heavily faked exasperation. "So, dinosaurs, yes or no? I have a feeling Vergil would quite like them."  
"I agree," the demon lord replied, "Vergil spends so long with a torch and that dinosaur book after we've put him to bed learning their names he'll love some matching pyjamas." 

Eva couldn't believe what had just come out of her husband's mouth.  
"Since when did Vergil have a torch? Where did he get a torch from?!? How long have you known about this Sparda?" She fumed. He had clearly known about this for a long to refer to it so off-hand, and not told her.  
"I - err......." Clearly the demon had only just realised his mistake. "Did I say about Vergil's torch? I know nothing about any torch Vergil has. Just a joke." He laughed awkwardly, desperately back tracking. It didn't fool Eva, but did end her frustration, once again he was just applying his standards to their children, and she was applying hers. The thing was, Eva reflected, the twins were both and it was pointless being angry with Sparda. She quickly changed tac to a more despairing, pleading tone that she knew would sway the Legendary Dark Knight in moments. Really he was such a softie.  
"You know 5-year-old children aren't supposed to stay up that late, sweetheart." She said, still holding the dinosaur pyjamas in her hand. "That's probably why Vergil fell asleep in his PE class two days ago."

Sparda hesitated, but Eva could see the acknowledgment in his eyes, he understood really where she was coming from. That was something, at least, she reflected. This argument wasn't going to end up like their argument over whether or not the boys should have practice swords at the age of 4. They'd argued long and hard over that one and eventually compromised and given them their practice swords at the age of 3.  
"I suppose you're right." Sparda relented. "But we can't just take it away and leave Dante with his glow-in-the-dark nunchucks, that would hardly be fair." Eva's brain didn't quite register that one. Glow-in-the-dark nunchucks?!? Where do you even buy glow-in-the-dark nunchucks?!? "You didn't know about those either did you?" Her husband said, defeat written right across his face. Every time that pathetic look in eyes managed to melt her heart, which probaby made her as much as a softie as he was.   
"No, I didn't.” Eva sighed. Really, she wasn't angry, but she did despair. An endeared despair sure, but despair nevertheless. "Look, I appreciate that you and the boys are perfectly happy living nocturnally, but the rest of society isn't and I need you all to be able to live there with me."

Eva could see Sparda soften even further, understanding and love for her pasted so clearly across his eyes and eyebrows. Relief flooded right through Eva, watching her husband's eyes so brashly declaring his emotions. He understood that it was for her as well as the boys, and he accepted that without a second thought. She really had married the most wonderful man in existence.  
"I understand, love." He said quickly, giving her a full smile, and going to touch her only to notice his arms were still festooned with child-sized coat hangers of pyjamas. "I'll talk to them after they get back from school this afternoon."  
"Thank you Sparda." She said, giving him a quick, bright smile. "So, back to pyjamas?" 

"As long as it's good with you. But you should know I really can't judge. They do all look the same to me."  
"I KNOW." Replied Eva with fake annoyance. "That's why I have been painstakingly describing each pair to you, silly."  
"Of course, because that pair a few ago, what was it? Ah yes, 'they're red'. So PAINSTAKINGLY described I could really see them myself."  
"Oh come, you know Dante loves red. I didn't think you'd need anything more than that to agree with me he'd like them. He even requested red himself!" Eva rebuked. Even though there was no malice in Sparda's sarcasm it was fun to rebuke him, and he enjoyed their sparring as much as she did.  
"I'll give you that one, Dante is-" 

Suddenly, the demon lord's head snapped up and to the side, his attention grasped in a manner that Eva had only seen in battle. She glanced across at where he was staring, but couldn't see anything other than the usual department store crowd milling about between the aisles of children's clothes. Looking back in concern to the Legendary Dark Knight, she saw he hadn't moved an inch. His eyes had glazed over entirely, and differently from how they normally look when he was blind in the bright light, but seemingly in compensation his nose was taking deep draughts out of the air. This was not at all the Sparda Eva knew.  
"Sparda? Sparda what's going on? Are you ok?" She said anxiously, keeping her gaze on his disturbingly blank face, watching in disturbed fascination as his fangs slowly descended out past his lips and his whole face shifted into a harsh, bitter snarl that was unlike anything Eva had ever seen on the demon lord’s face before, but was uncomfortably familiar to the battle-snarl of many other high ranking demons she had seen before. While she had fought alongside him both in his true form and his human form she had never seen such a guttural and, though the very thought did not sit right with Eva, inhuman expression upon his face up until that moment. Slowly, Sparda was losing control of his form. 

Eva knew intellectually that a human form was something that many demons struggled to create and maintain, but to agonisingly watch her husband’s crystal blue eyes disappear, seemingly involuntarily, into a pure blood red sea was something that Eva never wanted to see again.   
“Sparda talk to me.” She whispered fearfully, nerves joining her unsettled feeling as she watched drool start drip down his dagger-like canines. “What’s wrong?” Sparda slowly began to move into what could only be described as a predatory crouch, although Eva was certain it wasn't her words that had caused it as his eyes were still glazed over staring off to the other side of the shop. His mouth, still pulled back into a vicious snarl, released a low growl which, Eva realised only through experience with his true form, was the word ‘human’ ground out in a deep rumble. His form was slipping further and further, his nose still wildly taking in draughts of air like a mad thing. His hands were now grasping the children’s coat hangers that were in range with enough force to make the plastic creak and around the edges of his face and the exposed skin on is hands purple flakes were starting to detach themselves and float hazily into the air, with more joining them at every moment. That was a tell-tale sign that he was Devil Triggering, or going to at any moment, which just sent further waves of anxiety through Eva. What the hell had unsettled him so much that he felt the need to Trigger in the middle of a crowded shop?   
“Sparda you’re Triggering.” She hissed urgently, still standing beside him, fear beginning to overtake her anxiety as the situation to worsened and the air began to thicken with glowing purple flakes. With a last desperate attempt, she reached across to her transfixed husband and said in a quiet but desperate voice, “Sparda, please you’re scaring me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote most of this just recently, so hopefully it flows with where the old work left off. I was pretty happy with how it turned out in the end, but let me know what you think! It's you guys I'm really hoping to please. This is probably the longest chapter, sorry I tend to leave off thematically as opposed to word-count wise. 
> 
> Also, 10 points to whomever can guess what is wrong with Sparda. Stay tuned for the next chapter to find out, because it promises to be super cute and romantic.
> 
> Also also, a big thanks to Akarroa who has inspired me with their wonderful comment to write an epilogue, hence the increase in chapter numbers!


	3. Making Mistakes is What Makes You Human

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An explanation and a happy ending.

"Oh come, you know Dante loves red. I didn't think you'd need anything more than that to agree with me he'd like them. He even requested red himself!" Eva sparred against Sparda, her fine wit lashing out against him with a speed that no demon could match. There was something Sparda loved about matching his wit against Eva’s in their little, inconsequential arguments that couldn’t quite be defined, but filled him with a soft warm love you wouldn’t expect from their sharp returns and witty retorts.   
"I'll give you that one,” the demon lord began, preparing his all-time favourite battle technique of the fake retreat, “Dante is-"

However, just at that moment Sparda’s train of thought plummeted full steam off of a cliff as a completely unshakeable scent invaded his nose. It was, it was perfect. For a few moments the demon lord’s brain ceased to function in the slightest as he failed to comprehend just how completely perfect the fragrance was, before ever so slowly he began to process exactly what it was his nose was picking up.  
It was human. But this was like no human he had ever smelt before. Sure, his nose had seriously improved over the past few centuries after having relied on it alone to ‘see’ but even so this human bouquet was exquisite beyond awareness. It was complex and delicate and the most inviting thing he had ever smelt his mind ran in circles just trying to get beyond the fact this was a human who smelt DELICIOUS. 

Though he hadn’t eaten a person in well over two thousand years, and he was never even especially keen on it before then, Sparda felt himself quickly regressing to a point where it was entirely irresistible not to leap across the crowded room and start tearing this human limb from limb. His brain had all but shut down, his processing was entirely held up in just trying desperately to try and understand the smell that could only be described as divine and acted purely on instinct, adopting a hunting posture, not even noticing the dull clatter of the coat-hangers that festooned his arms. He let his instincts guide him as he tracked the obstacles between him and his prey, all knowledge of what they were beyond in the way gone, as the roaring fire of a demon in pursuit filling his veins with a painful stimulant. 

It had been so long since Sparda had used brute force in his fights, his power sealed away in Temen-ni-Gru, he would have been surprised how easily he abandoned sword stances in favour of teeth-and-claw ambush had he been in full use of his mind. Instead, his muscles acted in total demonic harmony with one another as liquid heat filled him like lava, preparing him to access the full power available to him and them to stalk and hunt until he had that flavour within his mouth. The only functional part of his brain was telling him, quite persuasively, that he should keep his human disguise up for as long as possible so as not to scare the prey, use the disguise as the perfect ambush.

However, just as he was prepared to leap, every part of him singing out with the joy of battle, the inconsequential noise he had been filtering out as human drivel suddenly formed itself into understandable words as his wife’s, his perfect wife’s voice, small, afraid and desperate as the words:   
“Sparda, please you’re scaring me.” Reality just slammed into the Legendary Dark Knight all at once with the speed and weight and pain of a train. He suddenly went slack all over, only just managing to keep his balance and the coat-hangers on his arms as his brain desperately played catch up with what he’d been about to do. Disbelief flew rampant through him, disbelief that he’d lost control so entirely over something so small. He took a deep deep breath, and another trying to steady himself as just pure shame as he realised how close he had been, how things had gone so badly wrong. 

“Eva.” He choked out, thankful to whoever was listening that she had pulled him out in time. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” But he had scared her. Badly scared her. Her voice had sounded so small and powerless he never ever wanted to do something like that to her again. She didn’t deserve it and he felt so guilty that he had been the one to have caused it. He had scared himself, too though. The demon had spent the vast majority of his life in the human world surrounded by humans he had tried to distance himself from the pain-and-power world of demons, and he thought that he could never have gone back. To have such a vivid and near-visceral reminder that it lay dormant within him all this time. It scared him that he could abandon all of it so quickly. For goodness’ sake, he had acted on pure instinct, he had ignored his rationality so completely. It had made the life he so loved among humans seem so fragile. “I’m sorry Eva. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry I scared you.”

He suddenly felt Eva’s arms around him, the soft bump of her head against his chest. It came as a total surprise as he had shut off his nose the minute he actually realised what he was doing, he just melted into her, unable to read how she felt at all and cursing himself over and over that this had happened at all, there was no excuse. Nothing but his own failing.   
“It’s ok.” Eva said, directly into his ear, her voice so lyrical and flawless he couldn’t help but take comfort in it. “I’m here, we’re all fine it’s ok.” Sparda gripped onto Eva for a moment longer, just stabilising himself. It was a last resort, but he was fully aware that he was still in a crowded public space, and couldn’t afford to make any more of a scene that what he had already caused, so he just took his emotions and crushed them back into the furthest recesses of his mind to deal with later. He needed to look after Eva first and foremost, even if he personally would have liked to stay in her embrace much much longer he really had to reassure her.   
“You’re not ok, my love, I know I’m sorry.” He whispered back. “Let’s just buy these pyjamas and go.” He felt his wife give him one last squeeze, before detaching from him leaving him alone and feeling more exposed than he really expected to feel.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Eva didn’t really understand what had happened to her husband, and he was still acting strange now, although at least she did recognise this one as a deep discomfort. He had asked her to take his arm and guide him as if he was truly blind, which she realised must mean he wasn’t using his nose and she was starting, with a sense of dread, to get an idea why. Moreover, he had been entirely silent as they waited in line for the tills and as they navigated back through the department store to the car, but his hand had fidgeted with his monocle chain throughout in a clear sign of nerves that was also unlike Sparda. His entire body language and facial expression just screamed that there was something wrong with him, and Eva desperately needed to know what, she couldn’t bear to see him in such clear pain. 

The minute they were back to the car Eva threw the carrier bag of pyjamas onto the back seat before helping Sparda, who was still not using his nose apparently, into his car seat and swinging herself into the driver’s seat. She turned to look at him, only to see him staring straight ahead, his posture as rigid as if he had a rod of iron fused to his spine. She had never, alright almost never, known Sparda to act full of nerves when the two of them were alone, and it put her more on edge than she was at all comfortable to admit. She was used to Sparda being this great, unflappable demon who goofed around with his children regardless of the situation, and to have him this clearly out of sorts after getting so inhuman around her…it sent her mind running off into crazy possibilities she really didn’t want to think about. 

Looking across at him she couldn’t stop her heart melting for his fidgeting nervous face,   
“What is it?” She asked softly, leaning across the handbrake to place her hand on his rigid arm, which flinched minutely under her touch. “What’s wrong? What happened?” Sparda stayed staring resolutely towards the generic direction of the window, that look of intense discomfort stuck firmly between his eyebrows and glassy eyes. Slowly, he turned, looking just past her, although the rest of his body remained petrified. His eyes disappeared from view momentarily as he blinked, before he continued to look towards what Eva guessed was meant to be her. For his sake, she shifted into his line of vision.  
“I - ” Sparda began, before cutting himself off. That wasn’t like him either, although at this point it was probably easier for her to list things that were like his normal behaviour. “I smelt something that reminded me of something familiar. I – I forgot myself, my own history.” At that the demon lord’s face crumbled slowly, collapsing in on itself in what Eva was sure would have been a sob if the poor man had been capable of it. “I’m so sorry.”   
“Sparda why are you apologising? We all get spooked from time to time.”   
“But I shouldn’t!” He shot back vehemently, although it was disappointment not anger that was fuelling his sharp reply. “You know me, Eva. I can’t believe I would forget everything, act on nothing but instinct for anything as trivial as – ”   
“Stop it Sparda.” Eva stopped him, unable to listen to him a moment longer. 

Quickly, she grabbed pulled off her jumper, throwing it over his head, before pulling her own head into it, creating a little bubble which, though she was blind she hoped would lead to her husband seeing her face in perfect clarity. “You can’t be perfect all the time, love.” She whispered, giving him a soft kiss, and feeling a rush of pleasure as she felt a soft smile on them. “But I –” he began again although she stopped him quickly with another kiss.   
“It doesn’t matter.” She said softly, offering her husband a clean, peaceful smile. “You are who you are, you make mistakes, we all do. No matter.” 

Eva knew she didn’t need to say anymore. The most wonderful about her husband, apart from his gorgeously toned chest, was the fact that she understood him, and he understood her. She felt his smooth forehead rest softly against hers, and was content to sit there in the dark, his company filling Eva with a wonderful contentment now that he was the husband she knew and loved more than anything in the world.   
“I’m sorry for scaring you my love.”   
“I thought I told you to forget it. It’s fine.”   
“Thank you Eva.”  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Vergil stood alongside Dante in the school playground, his hands shoved into his dirty trouser pockets as his brother tried to place another pencil on top of his exercise book.   
“Why d’you think they’re late Verge?” He asked, before grumbling as his pencil caused his little tower to tumble over, scattering the contents of his pencil case from where they had been teetering in a pile. “I warned you that would happen.” Huffed Vergil, watching as his brother desperately tried to grab his stationary, which he was amused to note was mostly an eclectic collection of stationary he’d borrowed from their class and never returned. Looks like they won’t be getting any of it back now. “And do you really think it would’ve changed since all of, oh I don’t know, 30 seconds ago since you last asked me?!?” He griped. 

“I’m BORED Verge.” Dante moaned, still streaking across the playground at a speed that was probably not normal for a 5-year-old, not that Vergil particularly cared, although he was certain Mum would have a fit at them both if she saw them.   
“I am as well brother.” He sighed. “Bored of your POINTLESS QUESTIONS.” His twin stopped, a couple of pencils grasped in his fist, to shoot an annoyed look at Vergil. Vergil simply stared stonily back. If there was one thing he knew Dante couldn’t stand was him not getting provoked, and he really couldn’t stop himself. It was just too funny to watched Dante get more and more frustrated at him not getting annoyed.   
“What’s that supposed to mean Verge?!?” Dante yelled, his face screwing itself up before him. Honestly he was too easy to play Vergil chuckled to himself. 

However, before he could deliver the final blow to his red-faced brother, there was a distant rumble and Mum’s car pulled into the playground. All insults forgotten, Dante beamed instantly, abandoning the search for his pens as well to bound quickly over to where Mum had pulled stopped the car.   
“Mum!” He yelled, grinning like an idiot. Vergil was tempted to scoff at his brother, and simple grab his bag and walk over but he couldn’t resist his face breaking out into a huge grin as well, running over to stand beside Dante. The car door opened and Mum stepped out, smiling down at the pair of them.   
“Hello you two.” She said, walking around to the back of the car to open up the boot. “How was your day?“ Dante had dashed back off to where he had left his rucksack, and Vergil was confident that he would grab his at the same time. 

“Normal.” He replied. “Why are you late? What happened?” Mum was smiling at Vergil still, although it looked a little different to before, although he couldn’t quite place his finger on why.   
“Your father and I got a little…distracted after we got back from shopping. I’m sorry for making you two wait.”   
“I don’t mind Mum!” Dante yelled, arriving back beside Vergil carry both of their bags. Vergil congratulated himself a little at his correct prediction. “I made a tower of all my stuff, and then it went over the playground!” Mum looked at Dante, an expression Vergil couldn’t understand.   
“You got them back right?” She asked, her voice slightly hesitant. Ah, so she was worried then.   
“Uhhhhh, most of it.” Dante said, still yelling.   
“It’s ok, he’ll just steal what he needs from our other classmates.” Vergil replied, walking around to his side of the car and pulling himself up into his car seat.   
“WHAT?!?” Mum cried, her voice slightly strangled.   
“VERGIL! Mum, that’s not what he means!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woooo! Made it in the end! Thanks all for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! Please do review if this made you feel or think absolutely anything at all, even if that was 'Wow, this is total rubbish'. 
> 
> Also, I know this is the end of the story, but don't worry, we still have an epilogue and out-takes to go, both inspired by two wonderful reviews. So yes, if you write a review you too might inspire an out-take!


	4. Epilogue and Outtake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An epilogue and outtake, because my wonderful commenters won't stop me giving me inspiration!

EPILOGUE

Dante woke slowly, his vision blurry as he pulled himself slowly from where he had been asleep. Blearily, he forced himself to sit up in bed, vaguely aware of someone shaking his shoulder pretty violently. “Dante, get up!” His twin hissed, still shaking Dante’s shoulder.   
“Hmmmmm….” Dante groaned, flailing his arm out towards his attacker, roughly shoving him away. “Vergil? What d’you wan’? Why d’you wake meh uupp?” The whole world was still blurry and Dante’s whole head was filled with a thick stuffy feeling as he rubbed his eyes in a desperate attempt to rub the sleep out before his brother pulled something on him.   
“Dante, do you want to get revenge on Mum?” Vergil whispered, Dante managing to open his eyes just in time to see his brother grinning like a wild thing at him. That was more than enough to physically knock the sleep right out of the sleepy hybrid.

“Have you got a plan Verge?” He whispered back with an identical grin. Vergil somehow always seemed to come up with plans that actually worked. “’Cos I’m still annoyed Mum took my glow-in-the-dark nunchucks.” Dante started creeping out of his bed, although that was stealth by Dante standards and was getting him all sorts of horrid looks from his brother. Not that he particularly cared.  
“Yeah, she stole my torch as well.” Vergil griped as he shifted silently behind Dante, the perfect image of the stealth Dante wished he had. “Follow me.” His brother then glided across Dante’s room to his window, through which they could see their old reliable tree. Dante crept after Vergil, creating a multitude of creaks on the old wooden floorboards. “And do try not to sound like an elephant brother.”

“Verge!” Dante hissed back, sending his brother a huge frown. Would it kill his brother to be nice just once? “You’ll pay for that.” However, Vergil just sent him a short, sharp grin, which was decidedly not what Dante was hoping to provoke. He was just preparing to shoot an insult at his brother when Vergil opened the window and slid down the tree. Confused, Dante leapt after him, sliding down the tree at speeds that made him grin. Once at the bottom, he turned to find his brother butt naked. “Errrr Verge……?” Dante asked cautiously, one eyebrow raised. This was his brother’s master plan?

“Pyjamas off, brother. This way, we can fight, we heal and our pyjamas stay intact. We can also rinse any blood off with the hose.” Understanding lit up through Dante like a bonfire, a smile breaking out across his face.  
“Verge you’re a genius!”   
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Many years later, Lady was sharing a pizza with Dante.  
“Dante?” She asked, looking at him across the table. “How come no matter how many times you get impaled, your shirt never has a hole in it?”  
“Hmm…….? Oh I put my healing into my clothes.”  
“When did you learn that? And why?” A smile broke out across the hybrid’s face.  
“Well, I started with my pyjamas.”  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OUTTAKES

"Oh come, you know Dante loves red. I didn't think you'd need anything more than that to agree with me he'd like them. He even requested red himself!"  
"I'll give you that one, Dante is-" suddenly, the demon lord's head snapped up and to the side, his attention grasped in a manner that Eva had only seen in battle. She glanced across at where he was staring, but couldn't see anything other than the usual department store crowd milling about between the aisles of children's clothes. This was not at all the Sparda Eva knew. Suddenly, he leapt right across the shop floor in one huge leap, his entire body tensed in focus, demonic energy rippling off of him as he propelled himself through the air further than a human could ever travel. He landed and grabbed a pair of nearby pyjamas in one fluid motion, turning back to his wife. “These would be perfect!” He said, a massive optimistic smile plastered across his face. Eva couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing, she quickly rushed over to him.  
“W – what?!?” She hissed, grabbing her husband’s arm. “What the heck was that?” A look of confusion slowly spread across Sparda’s face.  
“I was hunting the pyjamas. I needed to partially Trigger to be able to track them properly.” Really? That was his reasoning? This idiot! This great loveable idiot!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There we are! Finally finished.   
> I have a question for you all, for my next fic, would you prefer a Sparda origin story, how he came to rebel; or an Eva/Sparda story, how they met and fell in love? I have ideas for both but I can't decide which one to write. Please please let me know in the comments, I'll start writing it in 3 weeks, so you have 3 weeks to vote!
> 
> Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you!!


End file.
